Views from My Window – Foxes

I live in a semi-rural location near Fair Oak. There are pros and cons to everything in life and, for me, getting up in the dark to travel to work is definitely one of the cons. I use public transport and walk to the nearest bus stop, or sometimes the railway station when the weather’s decent.

Grumpy tweet

A few days ago I posted a photo on Twitter showing the track I walk along as part of my daily commute. The track is full of pot-holes, is extremely muddy and – to be honest – it was a grumpy tweet.

The snapshot showed mud, water, and a moment in time. It didn’t even hint at some of the magical moments I’ve also experienced in the same place over the last few years.

Making a connection

I’ve been enjoying reading the posts on Chandler’s Ford Today for a while. Fascinating articles, on a wide range of subjects, written by people living in-and-around Chandler’s Ford (which is just down the road from where I live).

I was delighted to be asked to share a blog post about open data a week or ago, a week or ago, and when Janet spotted my tweets and invited me to write a photo blog post as well, I jumped at the chance.

Chandler’s Ford Today meets WeeklyBlogClub

I’m doubly-pleased, as it doubles as my contribution to this week’s weeklyblogclub (run by another Janet). If you haven’t encountered WeeklyBlogClub before, the clue is in the name. It’s just returned after a well-earned break, and is well worth following. It’s a friendly group of bloggers, who tend to work in or around the public or voluntary sectors.

The bigger picture

I’ve taken thousand of photos of the local wildlife over the last few years. Often – usually – it’s completely unplanned, and I’ve just grabbed my camera as I’ve spotted an animal walk past the house or do something that’s grabbed my attention.

Here are a few of my favourite photos of foxes. Like them or loathe them, they’re certainly characters.

We returned home having been away for a few days and looked out of the kitchen window. Peeking out from the roots of an oak tree was a tiny cub.

Fox cub

The cub was one of several. As they grew, they would accompany the mother wherever she went, frequently demanding feeding.

There was lots of fun and games directly in front of the house. I always smile when I look at this shot of a cub skidding to a halt.

Fox skidding to a halt

Sometimes, games end in tears

Sometimes, games end in tears.

I usually take photos with a digital SLR camera, which can take quite a few frames a second to capture movement. I experimented* with a tiny clip-on camera called Narrative Clip. It takes a shot every 30 seconds automatically. I left it in the garden with some pieces of bread near-by. The two photos below are examples – they aren’t great, but it gave some different angles and perspectives.

Fox standingFoxes images with narrative clip

Foxes hunt in all weathers, even in a snow storm.

Fox in heavy snow

It never occurred to me that foxes go fishing, until I saw this…

Fox with fish

This last picture shows two cubs underneath a giant cedar tree. They are both watching a deer, which you can just see in the foreground.

Two cubs underneath a giant cedar tree.

That’s it for this post. If you’ve made it this far, I hope you enjoyed some of the photos. If you’d like to see more of different wildlife, I’d be happy to share them here.

* Note
I’m very wary of the privacy issues around tiny wearable cameras, so don’t use mine very much. As an aside, I conducted another experiment at an event I co-organise, called BluelightCamp.

I used the Narrative Clip camera to create a brief time-lapse video showing local artist Matthew Buck of Drawnalism at work. It’s here. Enjoy!

About Mark Braggins

I’ve worked with technology for many years, in various roles. I have a background delivering, managing and exploiting tech across a variety of sectors, including financial services, retail, software services and local government.

I’m an open data enthusiast. Back in my local government days, I founded the Hampshire Hub data store on behalf of 20+ organisations in-and-around Hampshire. I also founded Open Data Camp and co-organise BlueLightCamp (the unconference for emergency services).

I run “Open Data – Aha!”, which is gathering and sharing ‘stories’ involving open data, from across the world. I’ve also recently set-up a company AHA Digital Ltd which, as the name implies, doing digital and open data stuff, so you can hire me if you wish.

That’s really sad foxes killed your chickens, Janet. We did consider keeping chickens when we first moved in, but saw foxes in the distance and decided against it for that reason (also the fact that we have greyhounds!)

Only once saw a fox in my garden. It was a hot afternoon and he was asleep under a tree.
In my young days I used to go pigeon shooting. Once, in a wood with snow lying, I hit a pigeon but it fell out of my sight. I noted the spot to collect later. While standing quietly I saw a fox coming through the wood with a pigeon in his mouth. I am sure it was my pigeon. Later I found it was by seeing the imprints in the snow.